IAA'S NEW KITCHEN / DINING HALL PROJECT 2011

This slideshow will show the beginning to present building process as well as pictures of the students their supervisors and local workers who have dedicated their time to make this project a reality.

The shell of our Kitchen/Dining Hall will be completed around the end of this month.  We are so excited to have this facility that will allow our children, visitors and staff to gather together for meals.  We have been separated at meals since IAA began due to lack of space.  This facility will also be a blessing for: community gatherings; cooking for larger groups of visitors; and as a gathering place for the children to do homework, crafts, Bible Studies and more.

Thanks to:

·      The engineering students and faculty at Syracuse University who dedicated several years of time and planning of this project.  Group Picture in slideshow: Chuck Brooks (professional mentor), Lesen Haracz, Isaac Allen, Scott Ranthes and Erin Zeqja. Janet Brooks was present, but taking the photo.  Others from Syracuse University: Shannon Magari, Advisor to the EWB Syracuse University Student Chapter; and all the other volunteer engineers and architects in the Syracuse area who helped to keep the project on target.

·      Gordon Clark who spent volunteer time to oversee this project for IAA. 

·      James Taubitz, who is a Kenya missionary with EMI (Engineer Ministries International), who is overseeing the project construction. 

·      John, our Kenyan contractor, who has done his work professionally and efficiently. 

·     Christine and Samuel, IAA’s staff in Kenya, who has put in extra hours of work to make sure the project is progressing. 

·   All of you who have contributed to the financial provisions for this project. 

APRIL'S THOUGHTS AFTER HER RETURN FROM WORKING AT IAA

April with Jacob and Hope

Just over a year ago, I took a giant leap of faith and boarded a plane to Kenya.  I was broken as I said goodbye to my loved ones, but I was trusting God fully with my life for the first time ever.  I had no doubt that I was going exactly where He wanted me to be.  The days were sometimes unbearably long yet my time in Kenya went by entirely too fast.  I can’t believe it’s been a year; I can’t believe I’ve been back home for two months already.

Once I got to Kenya, I waited for the culture shock that I was guaranteed to have.  Believe it or not, it never came.  Sure, there were things about the culture that were irritating sometimes but nothing was ever significant enough to make me want to go home.  When it was all over, I came home and I waited for the reverse culture shock.  This time, it came, but not in a way I would have expected.  I came home and suddenly nothing seemed clear.  I didn’t know who I was, where I was going, or what my life was supposed to be about.  When I was in Kenya, people always asked me what I missed about home.  My answer was always that I missed my freedom, or rather, my independence.  I was completely dependent on someone else for practically everything while I was there.  Coming home, suddenly I had more freedom than I knew what to do with.  Much to my surprise, that tripped me up more than once.  Being able to do what I wanted when I wanted to do it felt like a brand new feeling and was quite overwhelming.

April reading a book with Lydia

My life here at home is very different than my life was in Kenya.  Here, I don’t have children waiting for me.  I sleep half the day away because I don’t know what to do with myself otherwise.  There are no children for me to dress or feed, none to play with or teach new words to, no diapers to change, no little legs running to me or arms reaching for me to hold them the minute I walk downstairs in the morning.  Instead, I wake up and walk upstairs to an empty house.  I take a shower every day-at any time of day I choose.  I can stay in the shower for as long as I want and the water doesn’t suddenly turn ice cold or scalding hot, nor does it stop running when I would stand in the shower freezing and jpraying that the water would start running again so I could get the soap out of my hair.   I don’t have to worry about the lights going off and leaving me to shower in the dark.  I can get out of the shower knowing that if I want to dry my hair, I can.  I don’t have to rush to make sure I dry it while the power is actually on.  I can get in my car at any time I want and drive anywhere I want to.  The roads here are remarkable.  I hear people talk about the ONE giant pothole on I-20 near our exit and think about how nice it would be if there was only one giant pothole instead of hundreds from IAA to the kids’ school.  We take so much for granted here in the US and I immediately fell right back into that same mindset the minute my feet hit American soil.  All these things that we take for granted are great and it’s been nice to have them back, but I also miss Kenya and the simplicity of life there.  It was okay that I didn’t shower every day because no one else did either.  It was okay that I didn’t dry my hair because no one cared what I looked like.  It was okay that there were a million potholes in the road-we were thankful we had something to drive and that it was actually running that day.  There, nothing is reliable but it’s okay because God is reliable.  He shows up on time, even if it’s not in OUR time.  There, it’s okay that nothing is reliable because there, it’s not about things.  It’s about people and relationships.  In Kenya, I loved and was loved in a way that is rarely experienced in America, at least in my experience, because we too often let things and judgments and stuff that doesn’t matter get in the way of loving people for who they are.

As I said, I came home and lost myself.  I felt like I had left Kenya and lost God somewhere along the way back home.  All I knew was uncertainty.  God wasn’t giving me clear answers, or any answers for that matter.  I had no idea where to even begin, no idea how to find my way in a place that was so familiar and yet so foreign at the same time.  While wrestling with myself about all the uncertainty, I went to church and the pastor said this-

“The bad news is that there will ALWAYS be uncertainty BUT the good news is that your life-it’s going to be okay.”

April and Jacob

If nothing else, I find comfort in those words.  God didn’t take me on this journey and teach me firsthand about His faithfulness only to abandon me at the “end”.  No, this is just the beginning.  He is here beside me and He always will be.  He may not be making every decision as clear as He did my decision to GO, but He will use every decision I make for the good.  He is sovereign and He is holding me in His hands.  I may be uncertain, but God is not and I will commit my whole self to Him so that my life will reflect His will.  
April Lingle